Glenish

An Explication on Donoghue and Grimm’s Tales

Emma Donoghue’s “The Tale of the Handkerchief” and the Brothers Grimm’s

“The Goose Girl” both argue that the maid of the princess can switch places with her

because the maid is physically and psychologically stronger than the princess and neither

of them are essentially a servant or a princess. The two tales also argue that the princess

is kind-hearted and keeps her promises. On the other hand, there are numerous

differences between the two tales. The prince in Donoghue’s tale seems to be the problem

rather than the solution, but it is vice versa in Grimm’s tale. In the Brothers Grimm’s tale,

there is a magical character in the story, but the characters in Donoghue’s tale appear to

be more realistic than imaginary. The major difference between the two tales is that in the

Brothers Grimm’s tale, the evil maid is punished and the good princess becomes the

queen, and everybody falls into their proper places. However, in Donoghue’s tale, the

maid becomes the queen instead of the real princess, who remains as the goose girl.

The two tales both argue that the servant can switch places with the princess

because the servant is physically and mentally stronger than her. In “The Goose Girl,”

when the princess loses the three drops of blood, the servant forces the princess to

exchange her horse and clothing. The servant also threatens the princess not to reveal the

truth to anybody and “made her swear under the open sky never to breathe a word of all

this to a living soul at court, and if she hadn’t sworn, the waiting maid would have killed

her on the spot” (Grimm 72). Presumably, the princess is weak because she obeys every

request that the servant makes. Similarly, in “The Tale of the Handkerchief,” when the

servant knows that the mother of the princess’s royal blood is nearly gone, the servant
tells her to, “take off [her] dress or [the servant will] strip it from [her] body with [the

servant’s] bare hands” (Donoghue 309). The servant forces the princess to exchange

horses and also says to her, “I am the queen’s daughter, I told her, and you are my maid,

and if you ever say otherwise I will rip your throat open with my bare hands” (Donoghue

310). The princess does not have the courage to fight back; therefore, she accepts all of

the servant’s requests.

The two tales also provide another reason why the servant and the princess can

switch places around because neither of them are essentially a servant or a princess. In

Donoghue’s tale, the servant forces the princess to take off her own dress and they are

both naked. The servant asks her, “Where is the difference between us now?” (Donoghue

309). This illustrates that they both look basically the same without the clothes on. When

they enter the palace, the servant becomes the princess and knows how to behave like a

princess, as she notes, “I found that I knew how to behave like a princess, from my short

lifetime of watching. I snapped my fan; I offered my gloved hand to be kissed; I never

bent my back. At times, I forgot for a moment that I was acting” (Donoghue 310). The

real princess becomes a goose girl and tends a flock of geese. No one notices who the

goose girl really is because the essence of a princess is just like the essence of a servant.

Similarly, in the Brothers Grimm’s tale, the servant steps into the princess’s dress and

rides the princess’s wonderful horse. When they enter the palace, the servant becomes the

princess, as “The prince [runs] out to meet them and, taking the waiting maid for his

bride, [lifts] her down from her saddler and [leads] her up the stairs, while the real

princess [is] left standing down below” (Grimm 72). Later, the real princess works as a
goose girl who tends a flock of geese. Everybody considers the waiting maid as the real

princess because it is almost impossible to tell when they switch clothes.

Both tales argue that the princess is kind and keeps her promises under any

circumstances. In “The Tale of the Handkerchief”, the goose girl could have told the truth

and gained back her real status as a princess; however, she does not reveal the truth

because she promises the maid in the first place. The maid thinks differently, “If the girl

was going to denounce me this would be the moment for it. But I heard nothing except

the clinking harnesses as they led the horses away” (Donoghue 310). When the maid

retrieves the handkerchief from the tree and tries to persuade the princess not to tell the

truth by giving her the handkerchief, the princess swears not to tell truth again not

because of handkerchief, but because she keeps her words. The princess says, “By the

open sky, I swear I will never tell what is not true” (Donoghue 313). Similarly, in “The

Goose Girl”, the goose girl also promises the maid not to tell the truth and she keeps her

words even when the king asks her. The goose girl says, “I mustn’t tell you that. I can’t

pour out my heart to anyone, because under the open sky I swore not to. I’d have been

killed if I hadn’t” (Grimm 75). The goose girl can gain the status as a princess back right

away if she tells the king the truth; however she is the kind of person who keeps

promises.

Contrarily, there are differences between the two tales. In “The Tale of the

Handkerchief”, the prince seems to be the problem rather than the solution. The first

impression the false princess has about the prince is that he is “pale with nerves” and “his

voice [is] thin but not unpleasant” (Donoghue 310). During the wedding, the false bride

hears a tiny cough and sees there is a spatter of blood on his handkerchief when he takes
it away from his month. This foreshadows that the prince will die soon and the false bride

will become a widow, as she says, “The day after my husband’s funeral I would be

wandering the world again in search of a crown I could call my own” (Donoghue 314).

Therefore, the prince seems to be the problem of the false bride’s new life rather than a

solution. However, in “The Goose Girl”, the prince is more likely a solution rather than a

problem. When the king finds out that the goose girl is a real princess, and she marries

the prince and lives happily ever after, as it says, “…the young king married the right

bride, and they ruled the kingdom together in peace and happiness” ( Grimm 76).

Therefore, the prince seems to be the solution to the princess’s new life rather than a

problem.

In the Brothers Grimm’s tale, some of the characters are magical, but the

characters in Donoghue’s tale appear to be more realistic than imaginary. In “The Goose

Girl”, when the princess is on the way to her betrothed with the maid, the princess

becomes thirsty and gets water in a brook. The three drops of blood talk, “If you mother

knew of this, it would break her heart” (Grimm 71). The horse that the princess rides can

talk. When the maid mistreats the princess, “the horse [sees] it all and [takes] good note”

(Grimm 72). However, the handkerchief that the princess has does not speak in “The Tale

of the Handkerchief.” Also, the horse appears to be more realistic than imaginary. Instead

of saying that the horse tells everybody the truth, the false bride dreams that the horse

draws pictures to reveal her crime, as she says, “In my dreams that came to ride me in my

gilt feather bed, the horse drew pictures in the mud under the city arch with its hoof,

illustrating my crime for all the court to see” (Donoghue 311).

 The most important difference between the two tales is that in the Brothers

Grimm’s tale, the evil maid is punished and the good princess becomes the queen, and

everybody falls into their proper places, but not in Donoghue’s. In “The Goose Girl”, the

evil maid gets punished by being put naked into a barrel lined with nails, which would be

dragged by horses from street to street until she is dead. At the end of the tale, “The

young king [marries] the right bride, and they [rule] the kingdom together in peace and

happiness” (Grimm 76). However, in Donoghue’s tale, the maid becomes the queen and

learns the joy and anxiety. She likes better food, and wearing nice clothes. But soon she

learns that her husband will die soon and she “…would be wandering the world again in

search of a crown [she] could call [her] own” (Donoghue 314). The real princess

remains to be a goose girl, who she prefers to be at the end, as she says, “I’ve grown

accustomed to this life, and the goose girl went on. I have found the fields are wider than

any garden. I was always nervous, when I was a princess, in case I would forget what to

do” (313). At the end, the real princess and the maid do not fall into their proper places.